Fragallia

Pirts day

December 31, 2026 · computed for Rīga

The time shifts the planetary hours and the lunar-day boundary; the sun and phase readings stay day-based.

Waning moon 44% illuminated

The waning moon was long held as the best time for a pirts visit. This was when cleansing and letting go were most encouraged — heavier whisking and a longer, more thorough visit were favoured.

1 5 10 15 20 25 30
23

The crocodile

Heavy day Anti-phase: day 9

A stress point, where the Moon's vibration changes direction. An appetite that cannot be stilled, a leaning toward fights, nightmarish ideas.

Was favoured
  • + Guarding the home: cleaning, burning a candle, smoking it with herbs
  • + Fasting; dairy
  • + Forgiving, repenting
Was avoided
  • − Anger, gluttony, revenge
  • − Cutting nails, operations
  • − Ventures, a sedentary regime
Symbol
a crocodile, a chimera, Cerberus
Body
the female organs (Muladhara); the spine
Stones
black nephrite, smoky topaz

Health — a divinatory system, not medicine

The spine was to be protected; strengthening treatments for it were welcome. Illness long but not dangerous.

Dreams

To be read as the exact opposite.

Moon in Libra air

Relationships, agreements, balance, beauty. A good sign for talks and reconciliation. It is harder to decide alone — today you want to weigh everything with someone.

Sources disagree on this day

Canon: Russian sources: the female organs, the ovaries, Muladhara.

epadomi.com: Latvian sources stress the spine.

epadomi.com is a divergent branch, shown for cross-checking — not the reference.

Latvian folk tradition

a separate layer · by moon phase, not by numbered day
  • On the waning moon — pirts, water treatments, casting off the surplus.
  • Trees felled on the old moon rot less.

Source: Pēteris Šmits, Latviešu tautas ticējumi. Not the numbered-day corpus above.

☿︎ Mercury 4. of the day

Planetary week

a third, independent system

Thursday · Jupiter ♃︎. Growth, learning, law, travel, generosity. A day for large questions: strategy, study, courts and institutions, long-term agreements, helping others. What is begun on a Thursday tends to grow. A good day to ask and to give — money included. The shadow side is exaggeration, promises beyond your strength, and the wish to teach others how to live.

Current planetary hour: ☿︎ Mercury — hour 4 of the day.

Words, documents, roads, trade, talks. The best hour to write, study, buy and sell, bring people together, sort papers. The mind is quick but shallow — a large decision is better not settled right now.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 6.8 h

The year wheel

Last: Ziemassvētki
Next: Meteņi, in 35 days

21% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♑︎ in Capricorn, 9.7° earth
Day of the solar month
day 10
Next turning point
the spring equinox, in 80 days
Day length
6.8 h · sunrise 09:01 · sunset 15:51

The sun turned at its lowest in Capricorn, and the shortest day was kept as the year's true hinge — the cold was at its hardest, but so, tradition insisted, was the promise that light was about to grow again. Endurance, not comfort, was the virtue of this season; a fire lit now was lit in hope rather than in need alone. The body was told to bear with the cold rather than fight it.

The day, read as one

Several threads agreed today favoured release over beginnings: the waning moon, Latvian folk custom, and the lunar day's own emphasis on fasting and guarding the home all pointed toward pirts, water treatments, and finishing old business rather than starting anything new. The crocodile day's tension — a stress point prone to short temper and gluttony — was said to be eased by exactly this kind of cleansing, though it also warned against cutting nails or undertaking new ventures. The Moon in Libra added a wish for company and reconciliation, sitting a little apart from the day's more solitary, guarded mood. Thursday's expansive, generous character and the Capricorn sun's austere, enduring one spoke to different matters entirely — growth and long endurance rather than the pirts itself — so they neither confirmed nor contradicted the day's reading, only coloured the wider week and season in which it fell.

Generated with Claude · cached for this day and updated when the corpus changes

Your lunar birth day

computed on your device · only the day (1–30) is used, never the date

This is folk and divinatory material, not health advice. It is written in the past tense on purpose — "was avoided", "was considered" — and describes what tradition held, not what you should do. A pirts visit is a real load on the heart and circulation; judge heat, duration and frequency for your own body.